It seems that every line of work has its own set of jargon that is often spewed out during meetings so that the speaker can sound more impressive.

Let’s take the world of branding for example. Jargon-laden phrases abound, the likes of:

“We can leverage social media to have a meaningful impact on your business.”

Translation: We can use social media to help you grow and earn more money.

“Our aim is to increase the engagement level so that you will be able to measure the consumers’ sentiments in relation to your products and services.”

Translation: Our goal is to reach out to customers to find out who likes your products and services and who doesn’t.

Now imagine talking to your spouse and your kids or anyone in your circle of family and friends in the same jargon-laden manner: “It is mission-critical that we maximize our time together in order to achieve higher intimacy levels for meaningful outcomes and long term value add.”

My guess is that people will look at you as if you’re crazy (at least my spouse and kids certainly would). It would be much more effective to say to them, “Family time is important. Let’s spend some time together so that we will be closer as a family.’

Or even better, reach over and give your spouse a hug, or pick your kids up from school and take them out for an ice cream instead of saying anything; actions speak louder than words.

At the end of the day, jargon may have some added value (impressing clients and colleagues?) but plenty of miscommunication or misunderstandings also happen have a result. Jargon sounds impressive but a lot of times it is better to stick to good ol’ fashion straight talk.